OUR DVD PICKS for February are
all about awards. These recent
movies have already garnered
various film festival and critics’
awards (you’ll also find a few past
Academy Award winners on page
66). Some may make you laugh or
cry or perch on the edge of your
seat, but they’ll all inspire you.
—Stacy Thrailkill, media buyer
SONY PICTURES
STRANGELY, TRAILERS MADE Get Low
look like a comedy, but, while it has amusing
moments, it is actually a very poignant and
sweet, fact-based Depression-era drama. Felix
Bush, an old hermit, winningly played by
Robert Duvall, ventures from his backwoods
hideout to the small town nearby with one
goal: to arrange his own funeral … while he’s
still alive … so he can hear what people say
about him. Why he wants to do it is anyone’s
guess, although, as the opening sequence suggests, it might have to do with the event that
turned him away from civilization.
Director Aaron Schneider says, “I like to
call it the kind of story your grandfather would
tell you around the fire. You have to cozy up to
it.” He adds that to cozy up to any movie, “You
have to really feel for the people on-screen.”
Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas
Black lead a solid cast in an exquisitely shot
and moving period piece that will indeed
make you feel. PG- 13. (Street date 2/14)
Get Low
Waiting for “Superman”
Also available are Burlesque (PG- 13,
2/22), Conviction (R), Red (PG- 13),
Secretariat (PG), The Girl Who Kicked
the Hornet’s Nest (R) and Unstoppable
(PG- 13, 2/15). (Street dates and titles
are subject to change.)
THIS LITTLE FILM has a big draw, and
has already garnered numerous awards
and nominations, as well as critical buzz.
In his online Movie Guide (www.leonard
maltin.com), film critic and historian
Leonard Maltin called it “the movie I’m
most eager to spread the word about.”
Based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell, and
featuring standout performances, it tells
the story of a 17-year-old Ozarks girl, Ree
Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), who tries to
track down her drug-dealing father, who
disappeared after putting the family’s
Winter’s Bone
house up for bail. If she can’t find him
before a certain date, the house will be
forfeited and the family kicked out. Ree
has to navigate between the law and outlaw relatives who would rather she didn’t
discover the truth, whatever it is. Maltin
calls it “grimly fascinating” and cautions,
“Winter’s Bone is not for the fainthearted but it’s awfully well done.” R.